Month: October 2016

Professor Kenneth Nollet was in Minnesota, 30 September to 9 October 2016. His main speaking engagement was hosted by the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (HSEM), part of Minnesota’s Department of Public Safety. In addition to HSEM staff, public health, law enforcement, military, and electric utility professionals attended and actively discussed topics of mutual interest.

Nollet also spent time with Hibbing High School students from several science classes, involving them in an interactive presentation, At the Intersection of Biology and Physics: Human Radiation Exposure in the Nuclear Age.

Above: Hibbing High School, built in 1923, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and its education program earned the Bellamy Award in 1968.

This trip to Minnesota also included study tours of elder care facilities, with special attention to emergency evacuation policies and practices. The ability to evacuate residents, their medications, and their care plans is important, as is the wisdom to know when evacuation might do more harm than it prevents. These are among the lessons from 3.11.

Another study tour destination was the Soudan Mine High Energy Physics Lab, recently used to detect neutrino radiation originating from a cyclotron at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Illinois.

Above: The Soudan Mine High Energy Physics Lab is more than 2300 feet (700 meters) below ground, to shield its particle detectors (upper left) from natural cosmic radiation that penetrates the atmosphere and reaches the earth’s surface.

Dr. Seiji Yasumura, Professor and Chair of Fukushima Medical University’s Department of Public Health, and Assistant to the Director of the Fukushima Health Management Survey, compiled and edited a book now available in English, Public Health in a Nuclear Disaster – Message from Fukushima – (originally, 原子力災害の公衆衛生 福島からの発信), a record of 1000 days of public health activities in the prefecture since March 11, 2011. This new English version was translated with adaptations for an international audience.

The original Japanese version was published in January 2014 to describe countermeasures applicable to future accidents, which we nevertheless hope will never happen. Prefectural government officials, municipal public health officials, various professional organizations, and others wrote about facts and lessons for future generations, what happened in the field of public health, and how they felt as public health officials active in our disaster.

The English version includes commentaries on various activities performed by Hiroshima University, which dispatched a total of more than 1,300 staff including doctors, technicians, nurses, and others providing multilateral support for the reconstruction of Fukushima, and new human resource development initiatives which were born in the wake of this support to Fukushima. Regarding the activities of Hiroshima University, Dr. Kenji Kamiya, Vice President of Hiroshima University, concurrently Vice President of Fukushima Medical University and Senior Director of the Radiation Medical Science Center for the Fukushima Health Management Survey, Fukushima Medical University, served as editor.

The English version of this book was published by Hiroshima University Press on August 23, 2016. In the future, an English e-book will also be released for library e-book services.

●Outline of English version
┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄Title: Public Health in a Nuclear Disaster – Message from Fukushima –Edited by: Seiji Yasumura and Kenji KamiyaPublished by: Hiroshima University PressContents:
Chapter 1 What Nuclear Disaster Means
Chapter 2 Initiatives of Public Administrations
Chapter 3 Situation of and Countermeasures by Each Individual Municipality
Chapter 4 Activities of Various Professional Organizations
Chapter 5 Measures taken by Hiroshima University
Chapter 6 Suggestions – Toward the Future –
┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄Paperback: ISBN: 78-4-903068-37-4 JPY5724e-book(will be published): ISBN：978-4-903068-38-1

The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) convened 12 Dialogue Seminars for Fukushima Prefecture residents, with other domestic and international participants, from November 2011 to September 2015. Dialog Seminar reports appear on the ICRP site.

Following these 12 seminars, an international workshop on this Dialog Initiative convened in Date City, Fukushima, on 12-13 December 2015, as reported here.

This year, a follow-up study tour and Dialogue Seminar convened in Iitate Village, Fukushima, 9-10 July 2016, which is reported here.

This time, a Dialogue Seminar entitled “The rehabilitation of living conditions in the Futaba region” was convened in Kawauchi Village on 1-2 October 2016 jointly organized by Kawauchi Village and Nagasaki University.

The First day:
Session 1: The situation in the Futaba region
Administrative officials from some towns and villages in the Futaba region made presentations on their reconstruction activities and outcomes since the disaster.
Following these presentations, the chairman of a commerce and industry association in Kawauchi Village talked about the association’s efforts for reconstruction.
Nagasaki University has been active in Kawauchi Village since 2013, and their representative who has been in the village gave a presentation on the measures of strengthening risk communications with residents there.

Session 2: The socio-economic conditions for returning home
Roundtable discussion by residents in the Futaba region was held concerning the activities they have been doing since the disaster.
In the afternoon, the participants were divided in to three groups; in each group, residents discussed and exchanged various views about what has been carried out for recovery in order to ensure acceptable living conditions in their communities at this stage and what future plans should be implemented.

The Second day:
Session 3: Returning home: decontamination, waste management and environmental surveillance
A Japanese expert and a resident made presentations on decontamination, waste management and environmental surveillance, after which participants were again divided into three groups to discuss the above-mentioned issues.

Session 4: Supporting and disseminating experience for the future of Futaba region and beyond
Three experts, from the Ministry of the Environment, Fukushima Medical University, and Fukushima University, made presentations on their support of local activities in this region for a brighter future.

Finally, the two-day seminar concluded that for the way forward, a shared vision of the future is needed, along with a framework to support local products.